Salmon with Fennel and Sesame Bulgur Wheat

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A Store Cupboard Supper

So just back from my holidays it's time to get back to some good simple eating and balance out some of the boldness from my time away. This is a store cupboard meal as I had some salmon and peas in the freezer. It's super fast to prepare and delivers a good bunch of flavours from a limited amount of ingredients.

Ingredients (Serves 1)
1 small piece of salmon
1/2 cup of bulgur wheat
1/2 cup of frozen peas
1 tablespoon of olive oil
1 teaspoon of sesame oil
1 teaspoon of fennel seeds
1 teaspoon of mustard seeds
1/2 teaspoon of vegetable bouillon
Fresh coriander or flat leaf parsley

Place the salmon on a greased baking tray and pop under the grill. Grill for about 5 minutes each side until cooked through. Make the bulgur by boiling twice the quantity of water as bulgur in a pan. Add the bouillon and bulgur and cook for 10 minutes until tender. Add the peas for the last two minutes of cooking, I just popped them in straight from the freezer.

In another pan dry fry the fennel and mustard seeds. When they begin to release their fragrance pop them into a pestle and mortar and give them a quick grind. Return them to the hot pan along with the two oils, allow them to infuse a little over a medium heat being careful not to burn them.

When the bulgur is ready stir through the oil and spices. Serve the salmon over the bulgur with some freshly chopped coriander or parsley.

Lamb Madras

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No speel just one hugely yummy recipe. I learnt this recipe on the Cooks Academy Certificate course - it's really good, especially the next day. Worth considering if you're cooking for a dinner party reduce the stress on the day in question.

 Serves 6

Ingredients

Sunflower Oil for frying

1kg of diced lamb - trim off excess fat

2 big onions 0 diced

4 large cloves of garlic crushed

1-2 tablespoons of fresh root ginger grated

1 handful of coriander roots - chopped

400g / 1 tin of tomatoes

1 pint good chicken stock

3 tablespoons ground cumin

1 tablespoon of curry powder (depending on strength and taste)

1/2 tablespoon of ground coriander

2 tsp of cardamon pods - seeds removed and ground in a pestle and mortar (or a spice grinder if you have one - please santa - hint hint!)

a big bunch of fresh coriander roughly chopped

Method

1) Brown of the lamb in the sunflower oil. Do in batches and set aside.

2) Sweat the onion off for a few minutes after you have finished the lamb.

3) When the onion has gone clear, add in the garlic, ginger, spices and coriander stalks. Cook out the ground spices for a few minutes stirring constantly.

4) Then add in the tomatoes and chicken stock. Cook for 10 minutes.

5) Liquidise the mixture with a stick blender.

6) Return the lamb to the pan and bring to a gently simmer. Cover and cook for 1.5 hours - 2 hours depending on the size and quality of your lamb.

7) Serve with rice or naan and some nice homemade chutney - or Sharwoods mango chutney. That stuff is like crack cocaine for me honestly can't get enough of the stuff.

I made my own naans for this recipe - but the recipe is not quite perfect so I'll wait till it is before I post one. If anyone has any good naan recipes they'd like to share that would be great. I also served it with a spiced vegetable and lentil dish and rice.

Black Bean & Barley Chili

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Veggie Treat

I love a nice big bowl of vegetarian chili, it picks me up and comforts me. Winter is most definitely on the way out - so I may have to forget about dishes like these until Autumn - hurray! 
Black beans are great for you too, packed full of fiber and are also good at lowering cholesterol. I've been trying to cook with them for the last while, but haven't come up with anything with sharing until now. The colour that comes form the beans lends a really dark and 'meaty' tone to the dish.


Ingredients - Serves 4
1 tin of black beans
I large onion - finely chopped
3 cloves of garlic crushed
1 teaspoon of fresh rosemary - finely chopped
1 teaspoon of fresh thyme - finely chopped
2 carrots - finely cubed
1 cup of pearl barley
1 tin of tomatoes
1 teaspoon of balsamic vinegar
1 teaspoon of paprika
Dried or fresh chili to taste
2 tablespoons of olive oil


To serve
Fresh lime juice to taste
Cream Cheese - I used Yeats County Cream Cheese 
Freshly chopped parsley


Method

1. Put the peel form the onion, outer layer and the gratings from the carrots in a pot - cover with a small amount of water and bring to a boil, simmer while you make the rest of the dish.
2. In a large high sided frying pan, gently sweat your onion in the olive oil. After a few minutes add the garlic. Once the onion is translucent, add in the fresh herbs (if you have fresh oregano all the better!) Cook for a further 2 minutes.
3. Then add in the paprika and chili and stir briefly. Next stir in the tomatoes, beans, vinegar, carrot and pearl barley. Add in the stock you made with the onion and carrot. Bring to the boil, cover and simmer gently for about 30 minutes until the barley is cooked. You might need to add a little more water so check on it every so often.
4. To serve top with a good dollop of yummy cream cheese, add a good squeeze of lime and a healthy sprinkle of parsley. I'm sure that cream cheese and barley aren't traditional ingredients in a chili - but I don't care this was so satisfying.

You can serve with some rice, in Quesadilla, with corn chips - or anything else that is vaguely Mexican. 

Cinnamon & Raisin Bagels

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Boilin' the Bagels

A trip to New York is never complete without ordering a bagel from a deli. The bagel emerges toasty hot and stuffed to the gills with your chosen filling. Pastrami to the thickness of a couple of inches, topped with thin ribboned iceberg lettuce and mayo and tomato. It's a feat to try and take in that first bite.

Since I've visited New york twice, I can by no means make any claims to be an expert. The bagels there are different from the ones you get in the local Spar here. A real bagel has to be boiled, and I don't see no large vats of bubbling water beside the ovens churning out the jambons and chicken fillets. After boiling they are indeed baked as well, but the boiling gives them a chewy and slight hint of dumpling that you just can't get here.

Leaning Tower of Bagels on a Sunny Day!

I decided to make some of my own after reading Donal Skehans post on his mammoth eating holiday in Manhattan. I found a recipe for Cinnamon and Raisin Breakfast Bagels on his blog too - so that all came together nicely. Donal is a long time Irish blogger, just celebrating the release of his second cook book 'Kitchen Hero' Congrats to Donal, hope the book does fantastically!


I followed his recipe faithfully here, and now have a freezer half full of bagels, just pop them in the toaster for instant breakfast or afternoon tea. Spread with fresh butter, or cream cheese. I attempted hot cross buns last year - and failed miserably, these are much better alternative.


Enjoy!

Tomato Chutney

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This ain't no Ballymaloe Relish - they've got that secret recipe in a secret vault, inside a pelican, inside a safe, inside an iceberg in the North Pole! 

But this is a lovely relish - If you can resist the temptation of testing some, in the one month it has to be left to mature on the shelves. I made this after I worked an incredible week of 16/18 hour days - and thought my brain was inside out. Producing a large quantity of lovely things in jars was very soothing to my mind.

Ingredients
1kg ripe tomatoes chopped
450g white onions finely chopped
6 garlic cloves finely chopped

2 red chillies
3 apples, peeled, cored and finely chopped
4 tsp black mustard seeds
4 cloves

4cm piece fresh ginger, grated
300g sultanas
200g dark brown sugar
600ml malt vinegar

couple of sprigs of rosemary
10 cloves

Olive Oil

8 jars & lids - sterilised - I boiled them in a big pan of water, to clean and sterilise them. Then I baked them in a hot oven for 15/20 minutes just before they were ready to be filled. 

Cellophane

Grease proof paper

Rubber bands

Pretty lids

A big huge pot

Throw everything except the vinegar into your huge pot. Then add half the vinegar. Season. Bring this slowly to simmer - giving a good stir every now and then, to help dissolve sugar evenly. 

 Simmer for 30-40 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Add in the rest of the vinegar. Cook for another 30 minutes, stirring often until thick. 

Remove jars from hot oven and spoon chutney into them. Allow to cool.

Place a disc of waxed paper on top of the chutney and seal with airtight lids or Cellophane and rubber bands. Store for a month to allow time to mature. It should keep for up 6 months. Keep in the fridge after opening and use within 1-2 months.

This is great with cheese, I won't lie and say that I've eaten it with anything else but cheese at this stage. It would be wonderful with cold meat. macaroni cheese, pies or cold plate. Also great little things to give away as gifts. I might knock up a special Christmas batch soon - you have been warned friends and family! 

AND once again a big thanks to the lovely Des Moriarty for the pictures! 

Moroccan Lamb with Prunes, in a harissa spiced squash with pomegrante bulgur and mint yogurt

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Cheffactor Entry

Here it is! In all it's glory, what I have strangely decided to call my signature dish, though I've never cooked it before. I'm delighted with how it's turned out, I just hope that enough people vote me though so I can get to cook it for the judges in the final...... Fingers crossed! If you're not familiar with Cheffactor, Cully and Sully are offering the winner a 12 week cookery course at Ballymaloe Cookery School - so if you haven't voted yet click here and give me your seal of approval. Thanks - I really appreciate it.

A big thanks to the lovely and talented Des Moriarty for taking these pictures. Head on over here to see some more of his work.

So I have no idea where I came up with this recipe from - possibly an amalgamation of many things - Tagine, Halloween, squashes and the season that's in it.

Serves 6-8

For the meat

1.5 lbs of fresh minced Irish lamb - I use FX Buckley's on Moore Street

6 shallots - finely sliced

3 cloves of garlic - minced

thumb sized piece of ginger grated

1 teaspoon of cumin seeds

1 teaspoon of coriander seed

1 tablespoon of smoked paprika

2 teaspoon of cinnamon

3 tablespoons of toasted pine nuts

small bunch coriander - chopped

1 tin of tomatoes

2 tablespoons of of tomato puree

2 handfuls of prunes - roughly chopped

For the squash

2 butternut squashes - halved - seeds removed

Harissa paste - 1/2 teaspoon for each half

For the bulgur wheat

2 cup of bulgur

4 cups chicken stock

1 red onion - finely chopped

7/8 stamens of saffron

A big pinch of sumac

2 big pinches of turmeric

2 teaspoons of mustard seeds (I used black)

1 pomegranate - seeds removed

For the dressing

6 tablespoons of plain yogurt (I used Glenisk - cause it's gorgeous and Irish!)

1 big handful of fresh mint leaves

First half and de-seed the squashes. Retain the seeds if you want to make a tasty snack by roasting them in the over - recipe to follow. Rub a little olive oil over them and pop into a pre-heated oven at Gas mark 7.

Put the saffron seeds into a bowl with a teaspoon of bowling water -  crush gentle to release the flavour and colour. Bring 2 cups of stock to the boil. Add the bulghur wheat to the saffron and combine. Next pour over the stock. Cover with cling film and allow to sit for 30 minutes to cook.

Then dry fry the cumin and coriander in a hot pan until you start to release their flavours - you'll smell it! Then remove to a pestle and mortar and give them good bash. Then fry the shallots in a little olive oil, after a few minutes add in the garlic, after another few minutes add in the minced ginger and cook until soft. Stir in the cumin and coriander. Then add in the meat. Cook this until it's browned. Stir in the paprika, cinnamon, tomato puree and tin of tomatoes. Give a good stir, then add in the prunes and pine nuts. Bring to a gentle simmer and cook covered for 25 minutes.

Remove squashes from the oven when the meat is ready. Remove a scoop or two of the flesh to make the hole bigger. Smear over the cut side - the harissa paste. Stir the coriander into the meat and then pop into the squash. Put this in the oven and bake at gas mark 5 for approx 20 minutes. Until the top of the squash is becoming a rich deep brown.

While this is in the oven prepare the bulgur wheat. Fry the onion in a little oil until soft. Stir in the turmeric, mustard seeds, and sumac. Then stir in the cook bulgur wheat, and gently heat it through.

Remove squashes form the oven. Just before you serve - remove from bulgur from the heat and stir in the pomegranate seeds, they'll loose their nice jewel colour with heat. I used a small coffee cup to make this into pretty mounds, and served alongside the cooked squash and drizzled yogurt sauce. Serve some more of the dressing in a side dish should anyone want more.

Thanks for reading and for voting, I really appreciate everyone's help on this. I lost my job last week so this would just be an amazing opportunity to become and amazingly accomplished chef (that last bit is called the sob-factor!)

Lucy xx

Spicy Curly Veggie Fries with Mint & Chive Dip

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I discovered a nice new blog yesterday from fellow Dubliner, David - Kitchen 72, there are some nice recipes with a healthy bent. I read his recipe for carrot and feta salad with mint and harissa and decided that I would make this for my dinner. One hugely failed shopping trip later and I had half the ingredients - so I made this instead - it has carrots, harrisa and mint in too - same same but roasted!
 

Ingredients
Serves 2
2 Yams
1 Sweet potato
2 Large carrots (all cut into thin batons
1 Tablespoon of harissa
5 Cloves of garlic
Salt & pepper
A good dash of olive oil

For the dip (serves one)
2 Tablespoons of yogurt
A handful of chives (finely chopped)
A handful of mint (finely chopped)
A sprinkle of smoked paprika

Pre-heat your oven to gas mark 6. Toss all the fries ingredients well in a big baking tray - the thinner you can spread them apart from each other the crispier they’ll be. Bake on a high shelf for 45-50 minutes turning once or twice to ensure even crisping.
 
To make the sauce simply mix together the yogurt and herbs and sprinkle with a bit of paprika.  The spicy harissa is balanced out with the mint ad yogurt beautifully.
 
This dish would be great with baba-ganoush as a dip  - or roast breast of chicken on the bone  - or some grilled halloumi.

Rainbow trout with herby salad

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Wow, the weather today is fantastic AND I have a day off work! That never happens! So I went to the Phoenix Park and cycled around the park for 2 hours on my old lady raleigh bike, a massive sunny smile on my face listening to summery music on my ipod. Bliss!

After all that exertion I definitely needed something healthy but satisfying so I stopped in to Fresh and bought a nice fillet of rainbow trout.

The garden has gone into overdrive so I used a handful of mixed herbs to dress the accompanying salad. Fresh, zingy, healthy and delish!

For the fish:

2 sprigs dill

1 clove garlic

1 teaspoon fennell seeds

1 teaspoon coriander seeds

1 glug olive oil

Mash the seeds with a pestle and mortar. Place the fish on a large piece of tin foil. Chop the garlic VERY thinly and sprinkle half it over the fish. Add the sprigs of dill and the ground seeds. Drizzle over the olive oil. Bake at 170c for 10 - 15 mins.

Meanwhile make the salad.

Get a large handful of whatever herbs you have to hand (I used dill, rocket, rosemary and sage but you could include parsley, chives, basil, coriander, whatever you have, really)

Chop the herbs very finely and place them in a bowl. To this add about 4 tbsps good oil and a squeeze of lemon, to taste ( roughly half a lemon), salt and pepper. This is a delicious fresh dressing which can be used on loads of different salads.

Oven Baked Lamb Burgers in Mediterranean Sauce

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Maybe more of stew than a sauce

This recipe was started off by catching a wiff of barbecued burgers in town whilst having a drink. So it was decided - some juicy tasty burgers for dinner - oh yes! We picked up all we needed on Mary Street, from the Asian food company - one of my favourite shops in town.

IngredientsFor the burgers
3/4 pound of minced lamb
1 white onion - finely diced
1 tablespoon ground cumin
 a good grate of fresh nutmeg
2 tablespoons of ketchup
1 slice of bread - crumbed

For the sauce
3 mini aubergines (cause they're cute) finely sliced
1 white onion diced
3 cloves of garlic sliced finely
1 large green chili - seeds removed
1/2 red pepper - diced
1/2 yellow pepper - diced
1/2 courgette - diced
8 large tomatoes roughly chopped
1/2 litre vegetable stock
2 tablespoons fresh parsley

Start by making the burgers. Basically mix all the ingredients together in a big bowl - you’ll have to use your hands for sure. Then form into 6 burger shapes, and place in an oven proof dish and refrigerate while you make the sauce.

For the sauce fry the aubergine in a  little olive oil until it starts to colour a little - add in the onion and some more oil if needed and cook for another few minutes before adding the garlic and chilli. After another few minutes add in the peppers and courgette. Cook these until the soften ever so slightly - then add in all your chopped tomatoes. Bring to a gentle simmer and cover until the tomatoes begin to beak apart. Then add in about 1/2 little of vegetable stock. Allow to simmer for a few minutes, then remove from the heat and pour over your burgers in an oven proof dish - the sauce should cover the burgers - remember it will cook down in the oven.

Bake at gas mark 6 for about an hour. Serve with a sprinkle of parsley and some oven baked chips (ours turned out tasting of lemons, so Delo ran to the chipper - weekend boldness!) 

The burgers came out wonderfully moist and the vegetable mixture cooked down to produce a rich, sweet and dense sauce. I don’t want my burgers any other way! They would be equally as tasty with beef mince, I’d have added some harissa to the mixture if I’d had some to hand for sure. Endless variations possible here - with different vegetables and meats.  Tonight I’ll eat the leftovers in a fresh floury bap - looking forward to it already.

Mexican Chilli Soup with Black Beans & Corn

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Blacker than the Fires of Hell

Look at these - they're pasilla chillies, yes they're black, they're the size of your head, and they're the main ingredient of this soup. I did take the seeds out. As me and Lola learned at the Mexican Embassy in August of last year, in real Mexican cooking they use chillies, like we use tea - everywhere and all the time - oh yes! I found these chillies in Fallon & Byrne, and snapped them up as I've no idea where else to get the in Dublin.

This is a genuine Mexican meal, unlike my interpretations of other Mexican dishes. This soup is amazing, not as hot as you'd think, though it does pack a punch. It's a whole range of taste that is new to me, which is very exciting

Ingredients

4 large pasilla chillies

4 large tomato - quartered

1 large red onion

1 teaspoon of dried garlic (there was no fresh - the shame!)

1 pint of chicken stock

1 can of corn

1 tin of black beans

1 red onion

1/2 teaspoon of paprika

2 flour tortillas - cut into strips

Some vegetable oil

Grated cheddar

Over a flame - hold your chilies, until they become a little bit more pliable, like leather. Break them apart and remove the seeds and stem. Cover them in a bowl with a little boiling water. allow to steep for 10 minutes or so. 

Cook your onion over a medium heat until translucent. Add in the garlic and paprika, cook for another minute or two. Then stir in the stock, tomatoes, chillies and soaking water along with the black beans, retaining a few of these for garnish. Cook for 35-40 minutes at a very gentle simmer.

Remove from the heat and liquidise. Then stir in the corn.

In a frying pan - heat up 4 tablespoons of vegetable oil and when hot, fry the tortilla strips until golden brown. Garnish the bowls of soup with a few of these strips and a little grated cheese (none for you vegans). Divine, I do highly recommend trying this soup, also good served with some chopped avocado or fresh coriander. Or spring onions, feic I had them in the fridge and all - oh well, cooks regret ...

Saffron Spiced Bulgur Pilaf with Pomegranate

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Anti-oxidant Rich and Quick

So I have a quick hour to prepare some dinner after work before nipping off to rehearsal. I’d also like some food for my lunch tomorrow, so decide to make up a kind of fancy bulgur pilaf. Something full on flavour and light on time. You can substitute the bulgur for cous-cous, quinoa or rice if you have them handy.

Ingredients
2 as a main - 3 as a side
1 cup of bulgur wheat
5 strands of saffron
1 tablespoon of olive oil
1 small red onion - finely diced
2 small cloves of garlic crushed
2 teaspoons of poppy seeds
1 large handful of cashews
1 handful of raisins
1/2 pomegranate - seeds
big pinch of garam masala

In a pan - add one cupful of hot water to the saffron strands, crush the strands gently with a wooden spoon to release the colour. Leave to steep while you prepare the rest of your dinner.

Fry the onion, in a non-stick pan, for two minutes over a medium heat for a few minutes before adding in the garlic. Cook until the onion is translucent. Stir in the garam masala and cook for another minute. Stir in the bulgur wheat until coated with oil, then add in the saffron water, and then another cup of water. Bring to a simmer and cook for three minutes, add a little more water if this begins to stick.

Stir in the seeds, raisins and cashew nuts when you think it’s cooked. A big bunch of freshly chopped parsley would be great stirred in here, or some fresh coriander if you have some. Stir in the pomegranate seeds when off the heat, reserve a few more for garnish.

This makes a great side to serve alongside baked sweet potatoe falafel or hummus, or alongside some sticky ginger roast chicken legs. It would be a great little dish to bring along to a picnic or buffet lunch. The yellow from the saffron and the red little jewels of pomegranate seeds make it a very pretty side dish. I served it with some carrots that I parboiled and then glazed with honey and balsamic vinegar and popped under the grill to get rich and brown.

Paneer Tomato & Green Bean Masala

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So it's been a while since we went to the land of curry. I'm on a bit of an 'eat less meat buzz' right now, and I had some paneer lurking in my fridge for a week or two now. I think I should prob brush up on new Indian recipes, I've fallen into a rut with the spices and herbs I use - but hey they work - so why change!

Paneer is a lovely dense cheese, used in Indian cooking, like tofu, but much nicer. It comes in a block, and can be added to curries and cooked in the mixture, or I prefer to fry it a little to give it a nice golden brown colour and then allowing it to bubble away in the mixture to absorb all the depth and spice of your chosen curry. I made a Panner Butter Masala which is delicious, creamy and rich, make this if you feel like a treat, this however is a more healthy way of using this great cheese - inspired by the delicious food served at Govindas if you've never been it's well worth trying one of their three restaurants in Dublin City for a HUGE portion of healthy delicious food.

Ingredients

I block of paneer - cut into small cubes 2cm squares

2 small red onions - finely diced

4 large tomatoes - chopped (skins removed if you prefer)

3 cloves garlic crushed

1 inch of ginger root grated

a handful of green beans cut in half

1 red chilli (seeds optional - I optioned them in!)

1 teaspoon of mustard seeds

1 teaspoon of cumin seeds

1 teaspoon of turmeric

1 teaspoon masala curry powder

1 pinch of asa foetida (optional)

3 curry leaves (bay leaves will do)

3 cardamon pods

1/2 teaspoon of funugreek (ground)

1/4 stock cube

First dry roast the whole spices (mustard seeds, cumin and cardamon seeds) in a dry frying pan for a few minutes until fragrant. Remove to pestle and mortar and crush to release the flavors. The heat some oil in your frying pan and fry the cubes of paneer 10 or so at a time - till a nice golden colour on a few sides. Then remove to a plate and continue till they're all done.

Alternatively - use a pre-mixed spice - like garam-masala - or any type of curry powder/paste that you  have, don't let my extensive list of spices put you off!  

Add in the onion, cook for one minute before adding in the garlic and ginger. Cook these for several minutes until the onion is translucent. Then stir in your crushed spices and cook for a further minute or two, then add in the dried spices and stir. After this tip in the chopped tomatoes and stock cube add a little water and bring up to simmer, cover and leave o cook for about 20-25 minutes. Before you're ready to serve put the green beans on top of the curry - cover for two minutes, and then shy should be cooked but not mushy, stir well and serve.

I serve this with some jasmine rice and a side of aloo-gobi.

All veggies came from our box from Fruitfellas - I feel healthier just looking at this!

Lamb Tagine

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Cinnamon girls

Never really having been a fan of cinnamon with meat/savory things, I had never cooked a Tagine. Now I see the error of my ways. Cinnamon and meat can be truly amazing as long as you are not too heavy handed with the spice rack. The balance of flavors in the spices in this recipe are just perfect. I found it on this great blog, and have altered it only ever so slightly.

Cook it for three hours and it becomes melty, savory, sweet and delicious. I really want to make this again soon, it was so the perfect supper for a cold Sunday. The kind of thing that makes me say 'MMmmmmmm' repeatedly and at an inappropriately loud level.

Ingredients
Serves 4

2 tsp turmeric

2 tsp paprika

1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

2 tbsp plain flour

600g diced lamb shoulder

1 large onion, finely chopped

4 garlic cloves, chopped

2 tsp cinnamon

2 tbsp grated ginger

2 tbsp tomato puree

2 tsp coriander seeds, crushed

12 cherry tomatoes

12 dried apricots

2 tbsp sultanas

olive oil

salt and pepper

2 tbsps natural yogurt

Pre heat your oven to 160c. Mix together the flour and the turmeric, paprika and cayenne, then use this to coat your lamb chunks. In a large casserole (one that has a tight fitting lid) heat some olive oil and fry off the meat until it has browned. Remove from the casserole and set aside

In the same casserole, sweat the onions and garlic until they are soft and translucent. Then add the rest of the spices, and stir, followed by the rest of the ingredients and the browned meat.

Add in hot water until you have nearly but not quite covered the meat. Stir everything around to get all the meat juices and flour at the bottom of the pan to dissolve into the water.

Cover the casserole with the lid (or some tin foil if you have no lid) and bake in the oven for 2 hours and 30 mins (or longer if you like).

Check the Tagine, give it a stir and if its too liquid, place back in the oven with the lid off for about 20 mins. Taste and add salt and pepper to season if necessary. Stir in the yogurt before serving to give it a bit of extra richness and a lovely creamy texture

Delicious served with cous cous or bulghar wheat

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Anne’s Wonderful Rich Chai Syrup
From Berlin with Love

Anne sent us over a lovely xmas package with some goodies- a yellow spatula, a cute re-usable spotty bag, and best of all some super tasty chai syrup which she knocked up her self. We promptly finished the bottle and then craving more, begged for the recipe, which she very kindly provided.

The syrup is deep with flavour and is sweet without being too sickly. Anne said it would make the house smell great - and by god it did!

Ingredients
2 teaspoon of pepper corns
3 stick of cinnamon
2 tablespoons of cardamon pods
Root ginger, thinly sliced - 3 inch section
2 teaspoons of cloves
3 jars of honey
1 litre of water
Clean and sterilised jars

Mix and crush gently all of the big spices - and then tip into1 liter of water - bring to the boil and simmer gently for 30 mins. Stir in 2 Barry’s tea-bag (Anne was very specific about this, had to be Barry's!) for two mins until a rich deep tea red color.

Sieve the water to rid it of any bits and pieces. Then add the three jars of honey. Bring this to a gently boil until it thickens up and darkens slightly.

Pour into sterilised jars. We did this by boiling them in a big pan of water for 20 minutes. The recipe makes in terms of volume about equal to the amount of honey that you put in – so if you like you could sterilize the jars that you took the honey from.

This syrup is great poured into hot milk, with blueberries over yogurt, on apple pancakes and also very, very good in tea. I’m tempted to use it as the sweetener in a fresh batch of granola also. We made two type on with Barry sand the other with green tea. The barry’s turned out a bit richer and a darer colour. Anne asked for a vanilla pod in the recipe – but we didn’t have one- maybe that’s the secret ingredient.

Thanks Anne I foresee this becoming a kitchen staple - see you for St Patricks Day!

Spicy Roast Butternut Squash and Lentil Soup/Dal

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Soup? Dal? whatever, its delicious

You know sometimes you just get it right? I wanted to make butternut squash soup and for some reason decided to use lentils to pad it out instead of potatoes or whatever. I go through phases of having cravings for rice and dal, and making industrial quantities of both, so it made sense to me to make this soup in the way that I would make dal: cooking the onions and spices separately and adding everything together at the end. I seriously hit on a winner. It looks beautiful as all the ingredients are yellow and the turmeric just increases the intense colour. Also, this was the tastiest soup ever (not counting my Nana's chicken soup, which I will blog come winter). Fenugreek and Asa foetida are new spices for me, I added them on Lu's recommendation, you could leave them out but I think they really gave it an extra kick and an authentically indian flavour. I don't think I will ever make butternut squash soup any other way again.

Ingredients:

1 butternut squash

200 grams red or yellow lentils (I used a mix of both)

1 onion

4 cloves garlic

3/4 pint vegetable stock

4 tablespoons Ghee (or 3 tblsp veg oil, 2 tbsps butter, but flavour will not be as good)

2 teaspoons cumin seeds

2 teaspoons coriander seeds

1 teaspoon turmeric

1 3cm thick slice of ginger

1/2 teaspoon cumin powder

1/2 teaspoon chilli powder

1/4 teaspoon fenugreek powder

1/4 teaspoon asa foetida powder

Begin by cutting the squash in half, removing the seeds, and placing an unpeeled clove of garlic into each of the cavities. Sprinkle with oil and season, and roast in a very hot oven for about 3/4 of an hour or until soft enough to scoop the flesh out with a spoon. Meanwhile,

wash the lentils well, place in a pot, cover and simmer them in about 3 times as much water along with the turmeric and ginger.

When the lentils are totally soft, discard the ginger. Remove the cooked squash from the oven, scoop out all the flesh and add it to the pot with the lentils and their remaining cooking water. Peel the roasted garlic cloves and add them in too. pour in the hot vegetable stock (you might not need the full amount of stock, depending on how much of the cooking water evaporated when you were cooking the lentils. It also depends on how thick you like your soup. I prefer mine a little on the thin side) Using a hand held stick blender, whizz up the lentil and squash mixture until it is smooth

Finely chop your onion and the two remaining garlic cloves. Heat the ghee in a small pan until really hot. Add the seeds first, and remove from the heat. They will darken and fill the kitchen with a wonderful aroma. Then add the rest of the spices, followed by the onion and garlic. Cover the pot and gently saute the mixture until the onions are totally soft.

Bring the soup mixture to simmering point, and add the hot onions and spices infused oil. Stir until everything is incorporated, and serve.